Sounds like a nightmare. UK2.net has some of the same issues. You cannot let a domain expire for instance. They require you to email them 30 days before is it due to expire to let them you don't want to renew. Also, if you want to move away within 2 years there's an admin fee. Same if you want control of advanced DNS settings.

Those registrars bugs are very annoying and downright scary from a security point of view: just because a name is listed in your account doesn't mean it even exists.
I just cannot imagine the mess in their accounts. Unless the data is available from Nominet they wouldn't even know their 'inventory'.

I would like to offer you my apologies for any concern this has caused to you. 123-Reg do not charge a redemption fee for .uk domain names. There have been a few updates in the control panel, which unfortunately have caused this error. We are working hard to have the error resolved as soon as possible. Once the error is resolved all invoices will update automatically and show just the correct renewal charge.

I would like to offer assurances to anyone who has seen this charge that although the charge is shown on the invoice, it is not charged, the payment amount will be for the standard renewal price only.

Pred - I would like to thank you for updating this thread with the information you were provided from our support team.

A .com domain name that expires has in most cases a grace period of 45 days in which it can be renewed without additional charges, right now 123-reg does not charge an admin fee to renew within this period (though our site may show this currently in the control panel, as we are working on this page today, sorry...).

After 45 days, the domain goes to redemption period. To recover a domain from redemption incurs a fee from Verisign, I think $25. The reseller providers we use then charge an additional fee to 123-reg, going anywhere from $25 to $80. We then convert this to £, round up to an easy figure considering exchange rates and pass that on to our customers. .com with one of our providers is charged by us for £40.

Until recently, all recovery of domains from redemption would be done manually by the customer calling support, the domain likely would not be listed and many customers can be confused, not seeing the domain at all in the renewals list.

Yesterday, along with allowing multi-year renewals and registrations for .uk domain names we launched the ability for customers to also renew domains automatically from redemption for some extensions which support this, as well as allowing bulk ordering from our control panel.

Three major projects went live, all which I hope will offer more options and services to our customers.

I have another three major domain projects expected in the next couple of months, as well as some exciting changes for 123-reg.co.uk.

All feedback, suggestions, concerns and ideas can be discussed on the boards, or you can email me directly as well (richard.winslow@123-reg.co.uk).

123reg.co.uk have also charged me £40 admin fee to renew a clients .org domain which they say went into 'redemption' period. The domain is one that no one else would possibly want, so my client asked for it to expire so they register it in another country that has lower fees. After doing a whois check, it was found that 123reg.co.uk had renewed the domain themselves without permission until 2013. The domain should have been available on the open market by this time, but they still had the domain in what they called a 'redemption' period, so they could then charge this extortionate fee.

I am pretty sure that this type of activity by 123reg.co.uk is illegal, at the very least it’s a very dishonest way of doing business.

A second .com domain that I wished to expire anyway also had this £40 redemption fee. I checked with whois what happened, the same thing, 123reg.co.uk had renewed it a further year without permission when it should have been dropped onto the open market.

Without doubt, 123reg.co.uk are SCAMMING their clients. I have since moved all my domains to www.domainmonster.com who do not have any hidden admin fee's, and will not renew the domain without consent.

STAY AWAY from 123reg.co.uk everyone... this is a company that has a bad way of doing business. They may not scam us with .uk domains, because they know we will make a complaint to Nominet, whilst complaining to USA would be more difficult.

Definitely report this illegal activity to Trading Standards. I hope they are forced to pay all their clients back this illegal £40 fee.

Unfortunately the practice you mention is pretty prevelant in regards to Gtlds. The biggest service in the world 'Godaddy' have a similar catch in-place. And I know many others do also

If enough clients who have been scammed this way report this activity to Trading Standards (if the company is UK based), then maybe we will put a stop to this type of dishonest activity by them.

Technically, they are Cybersquatting on domains and using the silly term 'redemption', when domains should have been back on the open market. Not legal!

You state that it's "pretty prevelant", but that does not make it right or legal in the UK. 123reg.co.uk are UK based, so should be subject to UK laws in the way they do business. US based company's may get away with it, but we should try and complain about the UK based ones here whenever anyone gets this type of problem as is seen with 123reg.co.uk.